Bad ladybird

Found three ladybirds indoors, so moved them outside, to get a good blip photo - everyone likes a ladybird right? A bit like playing the kitten card - seemingly if you've a picture of a kitten you'll get more hits, but as the only kittens I could take are those strung up round my property to deter the local moggies from using my bird table as a feeding station.

Anyway as I said, everyone likes ladybirds right? - wrong, my ladybirds are Harlequin Ladybirds.

A new ladybird has arrived in Britain. But not just any ladybird: this is the harlequin ladybird, Harmonia axyridis, the most invasive ladybird on Earth.

The harlequin ladybird was introduced to North America in 1988, where it is now the most widespread ladybird species on the continent. It has already invaded much of northwestern Europe, and arrived in Britain in summer 2004.

Annual spread maps show that it has spread rapidly north and west from the southeast of England since its first sighting.

There are 46 species of ladybird (Coccinellidae) resident in Britain and the recent arrival of the harlequin ladybird has the potential to jeopardise many of these.

I wonder what the word introduced means? Is this like the re-introduction of beavers in Scotland, or the White-tailed sea eagle or perhaps the introduction of the grey squirrel which we're now culling because it's a Bad Squirrel and driving out the Good Red Squirrel - it's complicated!

At Loch Maree the Red-throated divers are failing to breed because the "protected" polecat has learned to swim out to the birds' nesting islands. Also historically the haunt of Golden Eagles which have now been largely replaced by the White-tailed sea eagle - it's complicated!

I remember shouting Bad Bird (as you do) at the Bonxies as we watched them dive-bombing the gannets to rob them of their food and then there's the magpies robbing the nests in the garden - it's complicated!

Back to the ladybirds I recorded my sighting at The Harlequin Ladybird Survey don't know what they propose to do about them or indeed what they can do about them, it's probably just a case of the survival of the fittest, some bloke called Darwin put that theory forward. I'm not going to say what is a Good Introduction and what is a Bad Introduction - it's complicated, although Jurassic Park was probably Bad and a cull of kittens would probably be Good.